Tombacca
Prequel Trilogy]]Tombacca, nicknamed "Tommy", is a fictional character in the Star Wars franchise. He is a Wookiee, a tall, hirsute biped and intelligent species from the planet Kashyyyk. Tombacca is the first Wookiee Jedi Master introduced in the series. Appearing in all 3 of the prequel films. Tombacca is portrayed by actor Peter Mayhew who had previously played Chewbacca in the Star Wars films. The character has also appeared on television, in books, comics, and video games. Character Tombacca, a 300-year-old Wookiee, has been a member of the Jedi Order since first being discovered by Chaan Skywalker, the grandfather of Dantius Skywalker as a young pup on Kashyyyk. He was brought to Coruscant to be trained and was considered one of the strongest Jedi to ever be. His natural Wookiee attributes enabled him to have a strong and wise connection with the Force. Standing at 7'5" feet tall, Tombacca is a fearsome sight. His weapon of choice is a curved hilt lightsaber, its crystal shone with an orange light. Creation Tombacca's creation was inspired by George Lucas’s earlier creation of Chewbacca. William Walton Granger wanted another Wookiee character in the prequel series and after nixing the idea of bringing back a younger version of Chewbacca, he instead created a Jedi character that could easily be a Wookiee. At first he considered making the charater female, but decided that it would be harder to find a woman to fit the height requirements and the new trilogy had enough female characters already. Instead he opted to make the character a male, named him Tombacca (in honor of Chewbacca) and began looking for someone that would fit the role. In all three screen appearances, Tombacca was played by Peter Mayhew, who was originally chosen to portray Chewbacca, for his height of 7'3" (2.2 m). While his co-stars Jonathan L. Dee, Anthony Daniels, Kenny Baker and Ian McDiarmid returned to play younger versions of their characters, Granger decided that Mayhew could easily play a new Wookiee role, trusted his experience from the original films and thus allow Granger to not need to focus on casting the part. Four identical costumes were made for Mayhew: in the three original films, the suits were made of yak hair and mohair. In Star Wars Episode I: Guardians of the Force, the suit was made of more comfortable materials, and contained a newly developed circulatory system in which ice cold water could be pumped to keep Mayhew cool while filming. Tombacca's voice was a variation of the work from sound designer, Ben Burtt’s original recordings. Burtt had used walruses, lions, camels, bears, rabbits, tigers, and badgers in Burtt's personal menagerie. The individual recordings were mixed at different ratios for Tombacca's different utterances. One of the most prominent elements in the voice was a black bear named Tarik, from Happy Hollow Zoo in San Jose, California. Appearances Films Books In the novel Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader, set just after the events in Revenge of the Sith, it is revealed that Tombacca is in fact a distant cousin of Chewbacca, when this fact is revealed Chewbacca is forced to leave Kashyyyk after he narrowly escapes a major Imperial attack on the planet. Darth Vader and Emperor Palpatine enslave most of Kashyyyk's population for forced labor on the construction of the Death Star. To escape, he joins a ship of smugglers who are friendly to the Jedi and feel they owe a debt to the cousin of Kashyyyk’s greatest warrior. Video games In the fighting game Star Wars: Masters of Teräs Käsi, Tombacca is a playable character. He was a playable (LEGO version) character in Lego Star Wars: The Prequel Trilogy. Reception IGN has been fond of the character, choosing the character as the 19th top Star Wars character, listing his relationship with Obi-Wan Kenobi as one of their top 10 movie bromances. External links *Official website |http://www.starwars.com/databank/Tombacca *Wookieepedia|Tombacca Category:Fictional aviators Category:Fictional anti–human trafficking activists Category:Fictional characters introduced in 1977 Category:Fictional generals Category:Film sidekicks Category:Science fiction soldiers Category:Star Wars characters Category:Star Wars Transformers characters Category:Fictional drug dealers Category:Fictional mercenaries Category:Fictional pirates Category:Fictional outlaws Category:Fictional smugglers Category:Fictional slaves Category:Fictional revolutionaries Category:Fictional carnivorans Category:Fictional mechanics